The Montreal Founder Institute announced a new partnership today with the McGill Innovation Collective. Both organizations share a similar mission of helping new entrepreneurs in Montreal be successful, specifically in the artificial intelligence (AI) and neurotechnology sectors.

The McGill Innovation Collective is a new group at McGill University focused on building McGill’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The group encompasses the university’s technology transfer office, in addition to teams focused on partnerships and program development for students and researchers.

Through the partnership, everyone from the McGill Innovation Collective community (McGill University Students/Alumni/Researchers/Staff) can apply to the FI program for free ($50 value) under two categories: Artificial Intelligence for Social Good and NeuroTech: “Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives”. The most impressive applicants in both categories will be awarded the newly created McGill Innovation Collective Fellowships, giving them the opportunity to enroll in the program for free ($1650 USD value).

“Many Universities try to replicate or do ‘me too’ projects duplicating the effort from the private sector,” Sergio Escobar, Program Director at Montreal Founder Institute told MTLinTECH. “So as private sector, this is the kind of public-private partnership maximizing both worlds. The message is that private and public can work together to help our target market - aspiring entrepreneurs. It doesn’t have to be the public sector trying to compete with private on their own.”

The partnership will unite the academic resources and resources of McGill with the Silicon Valley connections of Founder Institute to create a mutually beneficial collaboration.

“As McGill University works towards building a thriving innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that leverages our research strengths in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, partnering with The Founder Institute to create Fellowships for our community of students, staff, researchers, and alumni is essential to helping us achieve our goals,” said Angelique Mannela, Associate Vice-Principal, Innovation, of McGill University.

In order to be eligible for one of the fellowships, you must complete your Founder Institute application and admissions test by the Final Application Deadline on July 30th.

Click here to apply for the Artificial Intelligence for Social Good fellowship, and here to apply for the NeuroTech: “Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives” fellowship.